024 - Hair SOS: How to Have Amazing Hair After 40 – My Ultimate Guide

If you’ve noticed more hair in the shower, your ponytail feels thinner, or your hair just does not look or feel the way it used to, you are not alone. Midlife and menopause bring big changes and hair is often one of them.

In this episode I talk about why so many women experience shedding or thinning, what’s happening with our hormones, and how things like stress, thyroid health and nutrition can all play a part. I’ll also share the key tests worth asking for, plus the foods and nutrients that really help to support thicker, healthier hair.

My aim is to give you straight-forward, practical advice and a good dose of reassurance too. There are steps you can take to care for your hair from the inside out - and you might be surprised by just how much difference they make.

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Transcript

Hey everyone, welcome back to how to feel like a midlife goddess. Today I'm going to be talking about hair and what we can do to, you know, have thick luscious hair. If we've had problems with hair loss and midlife and menopause, which is very common, I'm going to be explaining why that happens and what we can do about it. 

Because, you know, let's face it, in our 40s, 50s, 60s, things change. And I don't know whether it settles down once you're in your 70s, but it's certainly this period of change. And I was, you know, I'm in my 50s and I was talking to a friend today and we were just saying, you know what, it's a bit trickier, isn't it? It's like a bit trickier maintaining your kind of level of, you know, happiness in your 50s because you're suddenly confronted with things that you didn't have to worry about before. 

So this is what I want to say to you, you know, this is where I've got you and these podcasts, I'm really trying very hard to give you information that can help you make real change in your own life and deal with these issues that do come up in midlife, like hair. So today's episode is all about midlife hair, why it changes, why we might suffer with some hair loss and what we can do about it. So if you've noticed, you know, more hair gathering in the shower or that your ponytail feels half the size it used to, then you are not alone. 

And, you know, in fact, studies show that up to half of women in perimenopause and as many as 80% postmenopause experience some degree of hair thinning. And it's not about vanity, is it? I mean, our hair is so deeply connected to our sense of identity, you know, it's how we express ourselves, you know, how we wear it, it can be, you know, our hairstyle can be quite iconic. It's kind of how the world sees us and it can shape our confidence. 

And I know myself, you know, I've got quite a lot of hair and yeah, it's probably one of my best assets. And when it changes, you know, I don't like it, I want it to stay like this. So, and if you've noticed any change in your hair, and I remember when I was, you know, I had my babies and then you can lose a lot of hair then, can't you, just after childbirth. 

And it's horrible and it's, you know, it's really unsettling and it can be quite heartbreaking for some people. But I just want to say, nutritional changes and lifestyle changes. I've worked with a lot of women over the years have had this issue with hair, whether it's subtle or whether it's quite chronic. 

And we have made some really good inroads just through changing diets and supporting stress and getting, you know, the nutrients that person really needs. So there is hope. And I'm just going to explain to you in this episode why we lose it. 

And like I said, hair changes are common and they're often very manageable. And there are real practical things that you can do after listening to this podcast that can support your hair from the inside out. And that's exactly what we're exploring today. 

So let's talk, firstly, let's have a bit of an understanding of hair, the hair cycle, you might have heard of that. And once you understand the hair cycle, you understand why some shedding is normal. So if we just sort of start with the basics, every hair on your head is going through its own little cycle. 

And, you know, you think of it like sort of seasons in the garden, you know, there's a growth stage and then it stays the same stage and, you know, and changes happen and leaves fall off, etc, etc. Hair's a bit the same. So we've got like these phases. 

First of all, we've got the growth phase. It's called anagen phase. And this can take between, you know, three and six years and even longer if you're Asian, more like five to seven years. 

So yeah, that cycle, especially on the scalp is kind of a long, drawn out process. And growth begins at the root in your hair follicle, which gives your hair blood supply and the nutrients it needs to grow. And your hair, you might know this, but it grows, you know, like one centimetre to 1.5 centimetre, centimetres a month. 

I think hair tends to grow faster in the summer when you're probably outside a bit more, making a bit more vitamin D. But that is the growth phase. And the next phase is the catagen phase. And this is the second phase of hair growth. 

And that's when the hair transitions from growing phase to a resting phase. And that can take about two weeks. And during this phase, your hair detaches from your blood supply. 

And then we go into the rest phase, which is your telogen phase. And that lasts around five to six weeks where the follicle sort of takes a breather, if you like, and is a bit inactive. And then it kind of starts shedding the hair. 

And that's when the old hair falls out to make room for new growth. So there is this whole cycle going on the whole time. And on average, you know, we shed about 50 to 100 hairs a day.

So if you're finding a few strands on your pillow or in your brush is completely normal. And if you are like me, I used to wash my hair every other day. Now I wash it like every four or if I can stretch it five days, and then it's a bit like, you know, Armageddon in the shower.

And there was quite a lot of hair. But I've kind of stopped panicking about it now because I know it doesn't look any different. But you know, when you first kind of see that you're like, oh gosh, and that can just sometimes be because you haven't been washing it and you haven't been brushing it as vigorously. 

So it all comes out in one go. So it is normal to shed some hair. But, you know, in midlife, this cycle that we've had, you know, for sort of three decades can suddenly shift. 

And that's because as good old oestrogen and progesterone start to decline, as they do from sort of, you know, your mid 40s, hair doesn't stay in the growth phase quite as long and more follicles slip into the resting and shedding phase. And if you add to that stress, thyroid issues, which I'm going to talk to you about, and nutritional deficiencies, and suddenly you notice that you are losing more hair or that your hair is changing. So why do we get these hair changes at midlife? So like I said, the key players are oestrogen and progesterone, and they can lead to hair thinning because they just prolong that hair growth, the anagen phase, and they tend to decrease, you know, that decrease rather leads to more hair being in the resting phase, the telogen phase, and you get more shedding. 

And they keep, you know, the oestrogen and progesterone, they keep you just in that phase, that growth phase for longer. And yeah, and when these hormones drop, those follicles just become more vulnerable. Another reason is that androgens, like testosterone, can become more dominant.

And that's because as your oestrogen and your progesterone decline, that testosterone is suddenly, even if it hasn't changed or has gone down a bit, it might be more dominating than it was previously when you had higher levels of the sort of female sex hormones, oestrogen and progesterone. And what that can do is can shrink the follicles, especially around the crown and the temples, leading to sort of finer, weaker, shorter strands. So yeah, oestrogen and progesterone, basically, you know, they nourish the hair follicles. 

Thyroid health. Now, this is a big one. If you've got any kind of thyroid issue, you know, it can show up in hair very, very quickly.

So your thyroid is this little butterfly gland at the base of your throat. And it's kind of a conductor of your body's orchestra. You know, it regulates everything from metabolism and energy.

And if it's underactive, even just slightly, one of the first signs can be hair loss. And I'm going to talk to you about thyroid tests that you can do. A test generally that you can do for hair loss, but thyroid test is definitely worth looking at if you feel you're losing more hair than you usually do. 

The next thing is stress. So high cortisol levels can literally push your hair out of the growth phase. Now, I've seen a lot of people over the years that have had a period of chronic stress and then, you know, they've noticed that they've been losing a lot more hair and suddenly, you know, like we were saying earlier, you know, ponytails thinner, they just don't feel that their hair is what it was. 

And that's because cortisol, the stress hormone, you know, which is produced when you kind of got chronic stress day after day, there's a stress or something going on and you're just kind of in that heightened state the whole time, puts a brake on your follicles. And yeah, so, you know, it really does affect the growth phase. And then also another thing to bear in mind, how and why it affects your hair stress is that if you've got high cortisol, it also affects how well your thyroid hormones work in your body. 

They become less active and also puts a bit of a break on those. So if you can imagine you've got a bit of a break on your metabolism and your energy and all the things that needs to happen and that under the kind of jurisdiction of the thyroid won't be happening as well. So stress is not great for hair, specifically, you know, chronic stress. 

Hair is what I kind of call a nutritional luxury. You know, your body will only invest in your hair if all your vital systems are well fed and optimal. That means that, you know, protein, iron, zinc, vitamin D, B vitamins, you know, have to be plentiful. 

Otherwise, your body is going to divert those nutrients and it's going to put them elsewhere and your hair is going to take the kind of hit. So I don't know about you, but when I was researching for this podcast, I was thinking, oh, I'm not quite sure what exactly what a hair follicle does. So I did a little bit of research and basically a hair follicle is the tube that surrounds root and the strand of hair and its function is to grow your hair.

So I don't know if you've ever, if you remember sort of biology lessons, you see this sort of strand of hair with a bulb on the end and it's sort of this outer bit that goes into your skin. And that basically is, is the follicle. And at the very bottom in the bulb, that's where new cells are made to build the hair strand. 

And these cells are fed by tiny blood vessels that carry oxygen and your nutrients and your hormones and around the follicle are oil glands and they keep the strand sort of protected. So did you know that you are born with around 100,000 hairs on your head, the average person? So you can't grow new ones, but the empowering part is that you can influence how well the ones you have are working through, you know, hormones, nutrition, stress, etc. Hey, just a quick pause to let you know that if you're navigating midlife and beyond, maybe feeling a bit flat or fed up with food, I've got two things that could really help.

Firstly, did you know that I coach women through the metabolic balance programme? So if you're ready for something more personalised, this programme is all about resetting your metabolism, supporting your hormones and giving you a plan that actually fits your life. It helps you discover which foods suit you best, helps you manage portion control and satiety and build healthy habits that last whatever age you are. Want to know if it's right for you? Well, we can have a quick chat. 

You can book a free 30 minute call with me and we'll decide together. Secondly, my book Feel Good For Menopause is packed with real life tips, simple shifts, hormone friendly guidance and plenty of delicious recipes to help you feel more like yourself again. So if you just need that bit of inspiration, do get yourself a copy. 

It's available on Amazon or you can click the link in the show notes. OK, let's get back to the podcast. Let's now move on to testing and what kind of test you want to look at if you think you are losing significant hair and it really, to you, it really feels like there has been quite a change.

So first up, you know, when we're looking under the bonnet, if you like, the first thing I would be looking at is your iron, your iron levels. And, you know, if you have a low iron, you're not going to be getting enough oxygen to those, the roots of the hair follicles that need those nutrients. So you can get your iron levels tested and also your ferritin. 

You might have heard about ferritin. So ferritin is kind of like your storage iron and I think of it like your iron savings account. So instead of having all your iron floating around in your system, you know, your bloodstream, ferritin, that basically is a protein and it tucks away some iron for a rainy day and it goes inside your cells and then it releases the iron as and when it's needed, such as when you need to make, you know, healthy red blood cells or carry oxygen, support energy and keep your hair and skin healthy. 

So really getting a test for your iron levels, your haemoglobin and your ferritin, because it's the ferritin, which is this little protein, like I said, that stores the iron, can really be quite indicative of how much iron you have. And when you have low levels of ferritin, you know, practitioners will try and get those iron stores up because it can have quite a big impact on the whole phase of hair growth and shedding. The next thing I'd be looking at would be a thyroid panel. 

So you want to have a look at how well your thyroid is functioning. Now, you can get these tests easily from your GP with good reason or your, you know, healthcare practitioner, GP, general practitioner, if you're not in the UK, but, you know, your thyroid, like I said, if you're feeling tired, you're suffering with hair loss, there are so many symptoms, but, you know, low energy, poor skin, constipation, losing the outer third of your eyebrow can all be signs that you've got a lower than optimal thyroid function. And it's very easy to test. 

So you test your thyroid stimulating hormone, now just TSH, and then you test your T4, which is your ferroxene, and then T3, which is the active form. And ideally, if you can, you also test to see if you've got any antibodies to your thyroid gland. Like I said, you can ask your health practitioner, your, you know, your doctor for these tests, or, you know, they aren't quite readily available now. 

We can sort of in the UK, at least, and I'm sure in the US, but, you know, we have various companies. One that I quite like for, you know, dealing with straight with the public is MediChex. They are quite good, and they have lots of panels, but they, you know, they will have a thyroid panel if it's something you just want to get on and check yourself. 

But you can certainly, like I said, ask your doctor. So yeah, checking the thyroid is really important. Then I would also be looking at vitamin D and B12. 

If you have been listening to any of my nutrition advice, you know that I'm an advocate of taking vitamin D from sort of October to April, when we're just, you know, the angle of the sun to the earth, we're just not going to be able to make enough vitamin D in the Northern Hemisphere. So I would be aiming to take 1000 to 2000 IUs a day. But ideally, I often get people to test their vitamin D and they're very, you know, there are lots of tests out there, they're really cheap, you can just get a finger prick test, whereby you get sent a little, you know, test kit and you just prick your finger and you drop a blood on a card and, you know, two days later, you get your vitamin D tested result. 

And if your vitamin D is very low, then you obviously might need a bit more. And if it's very high, you just need a maintenance dose. But vitamin D can have an impact on hair, as well as B12 and B7, which is biotin. 

And if you've ever had any kind of hair loss, or you've been thinking about or you'd like thicker hair or whatever it might be, you probably will come across very quickly people trying to sell you supplements of biotin. Because, you know, a lot of people swear by they take biotin and it helps their hair enormously. And then you know, it grows again. 

And other people will say it hasn't had any effect whatsoever. So I always think it's better to test your B vitamins to see what your levels are. Because if you just take biotin and you don't need it, just complete waste of money.

B vitamins, though, they are water soluble, it's quite hard to overdose on them. Not that it isn't impossible. But you know, normally with a supplement that you buy, those levels will be, you know, should be at safe levels for most people to take. 

Another nutrient that we need for hair growth is zinc. Getting your zinc tested can be really good. Now, Medichex in the UK, they have a hair loss blood test, I think it costs about £85. 

And that will check for a lot of these nutrients, you know, like thyroid and iron and vitamin D. It doesn't check for biotin, B7, which, you know, if it's low, will definitely have an impact on your hair. And when I looked up the price of that test, it's not a test I run that often myself for women that I work with. But the biotin test on its own is £129. 

So obviously, for whatever reason, that's a bit trickier to test for, hence it's quite expensive. But you can get that test. And you know, you may be able to get your doctor to do that for you. 

And whilst it's not completely an issue, if you have low omega-3s, omega-3s, you know, I'm talking about omega-3 fatty acids that you get from all you fish. I have noticed when I work with people, when I get their omega-3s back up, it really does affect the quality of their hair. So I would also, you can test for your omega-3 levels. 

And I might even do a whole episode on omega-3s because they are, gosh, if you get your levels right, you can really improve your health, like massively. It's a major one. You know, sometimes you just get these little things that you can do that will have a really big impact on your overall health for a very long time. 

And omega-3s are one of them, but certainly it does play a part in hair. So let's have a little deeper dive into what nutrition, what can we do? So we've noticed we're losing a bit more hair. And we want to do everything we possibly can to get that growth phase going and we're not shedding quite as much and just giving our body the optimal nutrition, if you like. 

So this is where it gets really hopeful. And I think that, as I said, I have worked with lots of lovely women over the years that have come in and they've had thinning hair, you know, sometimes even little patches that are really, really thin. You can see the sculpt. 

And some of them have also had hair that breaks really quickly. So they can't, you know, they used to have long hair or like shoulder length hair, and now they can't sort of grow it very long at all. And we've had some really brilliant, you know, results with health by improving their nutrition. 

And I'm not saying that that's always going to be the only reason. There are other reasons why, you know, why we lose hair like alopecia and like female pattern boredness, and they're kind of other issues. But getting your nutrients right is going to have an impact, whatever the underlying reason for your hair loss is. 

So you've done your tests, hopefully, if you need to, you know, the tests are there. And now you're going to focus on what you can do and put in your body kind of thing. So, you know, I'm always talking about protein. 

And if you think about hair, it's, you know, it's made up of 95% of protein, specifically keratin. So you can see why if you don't have enough protein in your meals, your body simply won't prioritise your hair. So you're really aiming for 20 to 30 grammes of protein per meal. 

And, you know, so that's like, you know, a chicken breast, a fillet of fish, whether it be haddock or hake, you know, lovely oily fish like, you know, a fillet of salmon, mackerel, fresh mackerel is really lovely, even smoked mackerel is fine. Also things like trout, sardines, you know, really, and they've got omega-3s as well, so you've got a double whammy there. But you really want to have, you know, thinking about where's my protein coming from, you know, maybe occasionally some red meat, some tofu, we get protein in beans and pulses and chickpeas. 

And then you can sort of sprinkle on nuts and seeds and bring up your, you know, your protein level there. But really think, you know, you really want to be aiming for sort of a minimum of 20 grammes and if you can, 30 grammes with your sort of three meals a day. And then you also want to think about, you know, if you do have low iron stores and you're not anaemic, it can be, you know, a reason that your hair is thinning, even though, like I said, you might not show as someone that has an iron issue, but it might be that you've got low ferritin, that storage iron. 

And if you ever work with a trichologist or, you know, any kind of expert in hair, they really want you to have a ferritin level of between 70 and 100 for optimal hair growth. So yeah, do try and focus on getting some iron-rich foods into your diet. And that really can be like, you know, it can be green leafy vegetables. 

Since I've been a nutritionist, honestly, I have probably every other day, a green smoothie. That's my kind of go-to. And some people still like smoothies. 

Some people now think they're a bit passe, but I always have a green smoothie with some watercress or some chard and lettuce, celery, you know, green things in it, basically. And my iron has never been higher since I started doing that. So, you know, that is an iron, a type of iron, like non, it's called non-heme iron, it's slightly harder to absorb, but I certainly, I don't eat loads of red meat and my iron levels and ferritin levels have been very good since I've got green. 

So whether you're an omnivore or vegetarian, you know, you can easily get iron in once you know about what foods to get it from. So you've got your non-heme iron and that's plant-based sources I was talking about that, you know, some people say not quite readily absorbed by the body as well as the sort of animal-based source. But I think if you've got good digestion and absorption, you should be fine.

So think about things like legumes, that's lentils, chickpeas, beans, like black beans, kidney beans, tofu and tempeh contain some, dark leafy greens like spinach, kale, Swiss chard, collard greens, quinoa, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds, nuts and nut butters. It's always good to have some, you know, cashew nut butter in your cupboard and maybe some peanut butter, dried fruits, apricots, raisins, prunes, figs, all really good and then whole grains, brown rice, oatmeal, whole wheat bread, barley and sweet things like sweet potatoes and squash. And also the animal-based sources, the heme iron, we're looking at red meat, beef and lamb and poultry, chicken and turkey, fish and shellfish, so salmon, tuna, sardines, oyster, shrimp, liver. 

Beef liver and chicken liver are incredibly high in iron, though it's good not to consume too much, it's got really high vitamin A content and I don't suppose anybody will be eating lots and lots of that anyway, so you probably moderate yourself. And also the humble egg, you know, the egg yolk contains good levels of iron. And that brings me on to say that, you know, obviously listening to that list, you're like, well, there's so many foods you get iron from, you know, often we just want a simple answer, like just eat red meat or just eat spinach. 

But, you know, if you're having a good diet, you can see that it's probably quite tricky not getting enough iron in your diet. And when I see this, I'm then thinking if somebody's got low iron, I don't just think about what's going in, but I think what's being absorbed, because you can eat these foods, but if you're not extracting the minerals from them, like the iron, then, you know, it's not going to make it into your bloodstream and then go on and make it to your cells. So that makes me think about gut health, you know, how is your gut health? Because that also will affect your hair, because if you're not absorbing nutrients, whether it's for iron or anything else, you know, it's going to have an impact on your hair. 

So, you know, this podcast isn't about gut health, but I just wanted to say at this point, do you think, you know, how happy is your gut? Would it benefit from some fermented foods like, you know, kimchi or sauerkraut or kefir? Could you take, you know, a probiotic as a sort of place to start if you're feeling you are having a bit of difficulty in that area? And there are so many different reasons why the gut can be unhappy, but it's so important that it works really well and that, you know, it's not inflamed, it's absorbing all the nutrients, you know, it's doing all the things that it should be doing because, you know, you've got health. As you probably know, if you've been in the health space, it has a massive impact on your health overall. So just sort of flagging it up, you know, if you're thinking, God, I have all these foods in my diet, yeah, I still have, you know, feel like I'm losing some hair. 

Do you think about are you absorbing your food? And then that can come down to simple things like not chewing enough. Maybe you're not making enough stomach acid because you're eating when you're really stressed. So, like I said, so many things, but just wanted to get you thinking about your gut health. 

And finally on iron, just a few tips for better iron absorption. If you eat your iron-rich foods that I've just mentioned with vitamin C-rich foods, like, you know, tomatoes, bell peppers, broccoli, citrus fruits, kiwi, you know, these will all increase the absorption of the iron. And also if you avoid having sort of tea and coffee with your meals, if you feel like you've got low iron because they can inhibit the absorption of your iron due to their tannin content.

So just a couple of things to think about. And also to say, if you're going to take a supplement, I'd always recommend getting your iron tested first because you can have too much iron. So if you go and buy a supplement and you're not iron deficient, but you just think, oh, I'll give it a try. 

It's not like a B vitamin. It's not water soluble. It's going to build up. 

It can build up in your body and too much of it can, you know, be quite what we call oxidising. And that oxidising can kind of go on and damage the cell. So yeah, an excess of iron can react with oxygen and it causes these free radicals and it's these free radicals that, you know, cause us oxidative stress, which we don't want to have in our bodies.